Evolution / Genetics / Biology

2,000 year old underground city unearthed in Iran

After more than a decade of excavations, archaeologists unearthed a two-millennia-old subterranean city in Iran’s Samen, Hamedan Province.

The subterranean complex appears to have been first used for religious purposes, then as a cemetery and finally as a shelter during emergencies [Credit: IRNA]

The city, located 400 km west of Tehran — provisionally dubbed the Underground City of Samen, is “under the modern city of Samen,” said Ali Khaksar, the head of the provincial office of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHTO).

The official said the ancient city is believed to be around 2,000 years old, built sometime in the transition years between the fall of the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC) and early Parthian era (247 BC-224 AD).

Excavations began in 2005 and have continued to this day.

The city is made up of interlinked tunnels comprising 25 rooms (which served as houses and catacombs), halls and corridors. Some 60 complete skeletons (16 men, 26 women, 14 children and an infant; 3 are unknown) have been retrieved from nine rooms.